NOTES TO THE FIGHT AT FINNSBURG.
The original MS. of this fragment has vanished, but a copy had been made and printed by Hickes in his Thesaurus Linguarum Septentrionalium, i. 192. The original was written on a single sheet attached to a codex of homilies in the Lambeth Library. Möller, Alteng. Epos, p. 65, places the fragment in the Finn episode, between [ll. 1146] and [1147]. Bugge (Beit. xii. 20) makes it illustrate the conflict in which Hnäf fell, i.e. as described in Beówulf as antecedent to the events there given. Heinzel (Anzeiger f. d. Altert.), however, calls attention to the fact that Hengest in the fragment is called cyning, whereas in Beówulf, [l. 1086], he is called þegn. See H.-So., p. 125.
"The Fight at Finnsburg and the lays from which our Beówulf was composed were, as it seems to me, sung among the English who dwelt in the north of Denmark and the south of Sweden, and whose tribal name was the Jutes or Goths."—Br., p. 101.
l. 1. R. supposes [hor]nas, and conjectures such an introductory conversation as follows: "Is it dawning in the east, or is a fiery dragon flying about, or are the turrets of some castle burning?" questions which the king negatives in the same order. Then comes the positive declaration, "rather they are warriors marching whose armor gleams in the moonlight." —Alt- und Angels. Lesebuch, 1861. Heinzel and B. conjecture, [beorhtor hor]nas byrnað næfre. So. G.—Beit. xii. 22; Anzeiger f. d. Altert. x. 229.
l. 5. B. conjectures fugelas to mean arrows, and supplies:
ac hêr forð berað [fyrdsearu rincas,
flacre flânbogan], fugelas singað.
He compares Saxo, p. 95, cristatis galeis hastisque sonantibus instant, as explanatory of [l. 6].—Beit. xii. 22. But see Brooke, Early Eng. Literature, who supposes fugelas = raven and eagle, while græg-hama is = wulf (the "grey-coated one"), the ordinary accompaniers of battle.
l. 11. hicgeað, etc.: cf. Maldon, l. 5; Exod. l. 218.
l. 15. Cf. B. (Beit. xii. 25), etc., and Saxo, p. 101, for l. 13.
ll. 18-21. H.-So. remarks: "If, according to Möller and Bugge, Gârulf is one of the attackers, one of Finn's men, this does not harmonize with his character as Gûðlâf's son ([l. 33]), who ([l. 16], and Beówulf, [l. 1149]) is a Dane, therefore one of Finn's antagonists." B. (Beit. xii. 25) conjectures:
þâ gyt Gûðdene Gârulf styrode,
þät hê swâ freólîc feorh forman sîðe
tô þære healle durum hyrsta ne bære,
nû hîe nîða heard ânyman wolde;
in which Gûðdene is the same as Sigeferð, [l. 24]; hê ([l. 22]) refers to Gârulf; and hîe ([l. 21]) to hyrsta.
l. 27. swäðer = either (bad or good, life or death).—H.-So.
l. 29. cêlod: meaning doubtful; cf. Maldon, l. 283. G. renders "curved board"; Sw. suggests "round"? "hollow"?
l. 30. B. suggests bâr-helm, = boar-helm. Cf. Saxo, p. 96.—Beit. xii. 26.
l. 34. B. conjectures: (1) hwearf flacra hræw hräfen, wandrode; (2) hwearf flacra hræw hräfen fram ôðrum = flew from one corpse to another.—Beit. xii. 27.
l. 43. B. supposes wund häleð to be a Dane, folces hyrde to be Hnäf, in opposition to Holtzmann (Germania, viii. 494), who supposes the wounded man to be a Frisian, and folces hyrde to be their king, Finn.—Beit. xii. 28.
l. 45. B. adopts Th.'s reading heresceorp unhrôr = equipments useless.—Beit. xii. 28.
l. 47. "Though wounded, they had retained their strength and activity in battle."—B., Beit. xii. 28.